Great Album Artwork
Ranked #4,017 in Music, #112,235 overall
Why Great Album Artwork?
After checking out both front and back covers in detail, one would carefully open the cellophane wrapping - 1st question: leave it on or not? there were entire theories on the answer to that! - and pull out the record in it's inner sleeve ... oooh! what will I find here?!
Sometimes disappointment, but other times: sheer bliss! A bunch of photos, info on the recording sessions, additional musicians and - after Sargent Pepper's - the lyrics!
So ... this is just a small lens where I aim at collecting and sharing some of the album covers that I enjoyed as a way of, somehow, re-living the feelings I had when I came across the music they contained.
There are so many of them, that I shall be adding more over time. Hope you enjoy!
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Table of Contents
- Share the love!
- Bokmark Great Album Artwork
- HIPGNOSIS
- Creators of some of the most impactful album cover artwork ever.
- Why am I featuring Hipgnosis' great album artwork?
- What's your story with Hipgnosis albums?
- Hipgnosis artwork #1
- Hipgnosis artwork #2
- Hipgnosis artwork #3
- Hipgnosis artwork #4
- Hipgnosis artwork #5
- Hipgnosis artwork #6
- Hipgnosis artwork #7
- Hipgnosis great album artwork importance: art, emotion or both?
- Storm Thorgenson's own book
- Hipgnosis album covers in a book
- The Beatles - Abbey Road
- Abbey Road in Amazon
- Yes album covers.
- Pink Floyd albums
- Vote the all time Top 15 album covers!
- Which is the album with the best cover artwork? - Cast your vote!
- What is the blogosphere saying about great album artwork?
- Feedback for Great Album Artwork!
- Share the love!
- Some of Great Album Artwork's favourite bands
- While we're at it ... music news from Rolling Stone!
- Digg: Frontpage News
- Wired News feed
- Z Element: Designs for Homes with Personality
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HIPGNOSIS
Creators of some of the most impactful album cover artwork ever.
Many of the late 60's and 70's best known album covers were created by Hipgnosis, a British art design group that was contracted to design sleeves for Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, ELO and XTC, amongst others, and went on to become probably the best known album cover designers of all time.
Hipgnosis primarily consisted of artists Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and later on, Peter Christopherson. They formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1983. When first starting out, Powell and Thorgerson adopted their name from graffiti they found on the door to their apartment. Thorgerson said they liked the word, not only for sounding like "hypnosis," but for possessing "a nice sense of contradiction, of an impossible co-existence, from Hip = new, cool, and groovy, and Gnostic, relating to ancient learning."
In 1968, Thorgerson and Powell were asked to design an album cover for Pink Floyd's second album called "A Saucerful Of Secrets" which led to them being given additional work by record label EMI. At the time they were film and art students and initially used the darkroom at the Royal College of Art, before having to set up their own studio in Aubrey Powell's bedroom in 1969. In 1970 they rented space and built a larger and more comprehensive studio from which to work.
Hipgnosis gained major international prominence in 1973 with their famed cover design for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The final design was one of a several versions prepared for the band to choose from, but according to drummer Nick Mason, the 'prism/pyramid' design was the immediate and unanimous choice. The record itself was wildly successful -- it became one of the biggest-selling and longest-charting albums of all time, putting it in the hands of millions of fans, and it has since been hailed as one of the best album covers of all time (VH1 rated the cover as #4, in 2003). After that, the firm became in-demand, and did many covers for high-profile bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin, Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, The Alan Parsons Project, and Yes. They also designed the cover for the original UK paperback edition of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
One notable fact was that Hipgnosis did not have a set fee for designing an album cover but instead asked the artists to "pay what they thought it was worth", a policy that only occasionally backfired according to Thorgerson in his book on album cover design.
Hipgnosis were incredibly innovative and unique in their time, and was mainly photo orientated. The group pioneered many of the visual and packaging techniques which are still in regularly use today, in particular they utilized various darkroom techniques, used multiple exposures, used airbrush retouching, and used astonishingly innovative mechanical cut-and-pasting techniques. These methods were effectively the film based version of adobe 'photoshopping', and modern graphic designers and graphic software developers today have much to thank Thorgerson and Powell for.
The group had produced almost 200 album covers in 14 years before breaking up, however Thorgeson is still producing cover art for bands to this day as an individual. Most of those albums can still be purchased with the original artwork, and many also have posters available too.
Why am I featuring Hipgnosis' great album artwork?
Is it the art or the recollections attached to them?
Back when I was an early teen (that's WAY back - like late 70's early 80´s!!) I was discovering music (and myself) for the 1st time. Where I lived, music used to arrive a year after it was launched in the more developed world, some times later and sometimes not at all. Yep, believe it or not, some albums (e.g. Eric Clapton's Slowhand) were banned by the powers that ruled at the time.
Nevertheless, somehow, through bootleg copies or originals bought abroad and brought here by travelers, many times we new about the latest releases or even managed to hear some of the songs, so we were avidly awaiting the arrival of each new album.
That level of expectation for new material from our favorite bands or soloists led us to DEVOUR the albums once they arrived! Remember, there was no Internet nor email (nor Twitter nor Facebook nor Squidoo!)
So once the album was on the streets and we could get our hands on them, we were literally all over them and would scour them for every piece of information possible! The expectation wasn't limited to the music alone, but to the whole package. The WHOLE thing was part of the event: a new album!
Maybe it's due to that, or the lack of large volumes of additional information (like we have at our fingertips today) or to the fact that more importance was placed by both the artists and the consumers on the artwork at that time, that Hipgnosis covers became so iconic - at least for me - of that period of time in music and in my own life.
I remember discovering Peter Gabriel's albums, trying to figure out what he meant with those covers, or trying to read meaning and messages into Pink Floyd's album covers (amongst others). The creativity in Hipgnosis' artwork, the mystery, the element of surprise, the new paths they explored ... wow, they were as much part of the rush of the new releases as the music itself!
Obviously, there are myriad artistic and creative explanations for the impact that Hipgnosis covers had, but I'm no art nor design specialist nor connoisseur to know about that. On the other hand, even if I had some artistic knowledge, I still believe that Hipgnosis would have impacted me, and marked a period in my life more due to the emotional impact they had on me than due to the objective artistic characteristics and qualities.
I have the feeling that nowadays, with the possibility of downloading single songs or entire albums, that the importance of the cover has somehow fallen by the wayside. It's my guess that currently neither the artists nor the consumers pay so much attention to the artwork, the whole packaging in fact. Today you could even market an album or a collection of songs entirely without any packaging at all!
Therefore, maybe it's because I miss "the whole package" that I've chosen to feature Hipgnosis' work here, or am I really missing that time in life when I was "discovering" albums - and myself - in their entirety?
What do you think? What was your experience with these albums?
What's your story with Hipgnosis albums?
I'd love to hear, please share!
I've told you about what Hipgnosis album covers meant for me, what was your experience?
Did you like the artwork?
Was it important or not at all?
Did or didn't you care about the cover?
Was it only about the music?
Don't be shy, share!
Hipgnosis artwork #1
Hipgnosis artwork #2
Todd Rundgren - Back to the Bars
Hipgnosis artwork #3
Nazareth - Close Enough for Rock and Roll
Hipgnosis artwork #4
Hipgnosis artwork #6
Electric Light Orchestra - On the Third Day
Hipgnosis artwork #7
Hawkwind - Quark Strangeness and Charm
Hipgnosis great album artwork importance: art, emotion or both?
Let's have a vote!
Storm Thorgenson's own book
Eye of the Storm
Hipgnosis album covers in a book
For the love of vinyl
You can find it at Amazon by clicking on the link here.
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Front Cover
This was the first Beatles album that had neither the band's name nor the album's name on the front cover. Nevertheless, it became so iconic that even today (42 years later), fans go to that location to take photographs of themselves crossing the street in the same place that The Beatles did.
Back Cover
Abbey Road in Amazon
Yes album covers.
Find on Amazon
Pink Floyd albums
Vote the all time Top 15 album covers!
Vote yours and see where it ranks!
Vote for those on the list or add your own suggestions and see which are considered the Top Ten album cover artworks of all times!
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered)
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been more...3 points
Abbey Road (Remastered)
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been more...1 point
Dark Side of the Moon
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album co more...1 point
Led Zeppelin IV (aka ZOSO)
UK remastered reissue of 1971 album, packaged in a more...1 point
Houses of the Holy
Japanese-only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD) pape more...1 point
Close to the Edge
180 Gram vinyl, 1/2 speed master. Includes art ele more...0 points
Revolver (Remastered)
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been more...0 points
Wind & Wuthering
Digitally remastered reissue of the 1976 album by more...0 points
Brain Salad Surgery
Brain Salad Surgery is Emerson Lake and Palmer's m more...0 points
Let It Be (Remastered)
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been more...0 points
Rubber Soul (Remastered)
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been more...0 points
Which is the album with the best cover artwork? - Cast your vote!
What is the blogosphere saying about great album artwork?
- Cheryl Cole unveils new album artwork and tracklisting for A Million Lights
- Revealing the track listing for the album earlier on Thursday, Cheryl Tweeted: "Sooo Happy I FINALLY get to show you the Album Artwork.. You like ? :D #AMillionLights.. Booyyaa.. (sic).' She was also forced to deny this week that she is being lined up ...
- Smashing Pumpkins want fans' art
- The band wants its fans' art as it prepares to release its new album. All the information's here in Reel Reviews. Read on! The members of Smashing Pumpkins are asking fans to submit their best artwork inspired by the band's new upcoming album, ...
- Kanye West Unveils 'Cold' Artwork + Air Yeezy II Sneakers
- Now, West has changed the song title again to 'Cold' and revealed the single's new cover art. Designed by artist George Condo, who did the album artwork for West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' the updated cover features a topless woman and what ...
- Album Designer Cardy Helps Visualize Hip-Hop's Underground Mixtape Culture
- with the explicit interest in web design and mixtape art. Warrington has developed a workhorse approach to making album covers. He starts by discussing the mixtape concept with the artist, and he tends to riff on whatever idea is presented in the ...
Feedback for Great Album Artwork!
Please suggest missing albums for Great Album Artwork.
Please: no 4 letter words, no obscenities nor useless aggressiveness, there's enough of that out there already. Thanks!
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Obsidianram
Nov 11, 2011 @ 5:00 pm | delete
- Jimi Hendrix ~ Axis Bold As Love was an incredibly detailed album cover. Also some Southern Rock bands like Allman Bros, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. have some great album artwork.
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lousyguitar
Nov 11, 2011 @ 7:00 pm | delete
- Thanks for the vomment and reminders, yes they do have some great album covers, I'll add some of those soon. Best!
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reejpn
Jun 21, 2011 @ 11:06 am | delete
- Very interesting lens.
Great artwork!
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nichevalue
Mar 4, 2011 @ 10:12 am | delete
- Cool lens and album artwork.
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lousyguitar
Mar 5, 2011 @ 11:32 pm | delete
- Thanks for the feedback (and the tips! working on that)
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Some of Great Album Artwork's favourite bands
While we're at it ... music news from Rolling Stone!
Digg: Frontpage News
Wired News feed
Z Element: Designs for Homes with Personality
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by lousyguitar
Constant thinker, constant learner, business developer, wannabe musician.
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